1. Field
Example aspects of the present invention generally relate to the management of rings in a network and, more particularly, to methods and apparatus to assign rings based on certain conditions.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a communication network having a plurality of interconnected nodes, there may be multiple routes that data can traverse from a source node to a target node (i.e., a node where the data will be used). In the design of these telecommunication networks, traffic is often required to be routed simultaneously along diverse paths in order to maintain a connection if a path between two nodes is cut. In most instances, these diverse paths form rings that interconnect nodes at many locations on the rings. When the network is planned, the rings can be set up to cost-effectively deliver service. The assignment of these rings may be critical and is often not addressed in network modeling tools.
Much effort has been made to efficiently assign equipment to rings once the rings are established. However, cost savings may be achieved by efficiently assigning rings in the network. The cost savings in choosing desirable ring structures may far outweigh benefits of efficiently packing sub-optimal ring structures.